Don’t hate on this literary “fad” 

I used to have a personal vendetta against fanfiction in middle school. Key word, used to — I really don’t feel the same way anymore. Some of my friends were avid Wattpad readers, a popular site for fanfiction and other reads, and I couldn’t understand why they took time out of their day to read random, off-hand stories written by other teenagers. 

Despite never giving fanfiction a chance, I found the idea of writing a story based on another book or movie to be unoriginal and uninteresting. Personally, I couldn’t really understand why people bothered with reading fanfiction when there were so many other great books in the library to fall in love with.

I loved reading books in elementary and middle school, and still do, but reading meant something very different to me as a child. Books gave me the tools to craft a spectacular life in my head. I could travel through time, history and the world in “The Magic Tree House.” “Harry Potter” brought much needed adventure into my mundane muggle existence. Books introduced me to some of the most interesting people and showed me marvelous and unreal places. I loved doing fun and artistic activities in class, such as painting a scene from my favorite book or making a magic wand for myself. I was finally able to bring to life all the thoughts, ideas and pictures that were bursting in my head.

In a sense, fanfiction isn’t too different. Whereas I once saw fanfiction as childish and silly, I now view it as one of the most creative literary activities that teens and young adults engage in.

Fanfiction is unique because it allows its writers — who tend to be a younger demographic — to originally mesh together the stories that live in their heads. Writers might base their ideas largely from a book or movie they are particularly fascinated by, but they also draw a lot of their inspiration from the society and culture around them. 

They aren’t focused on simply telling a story for entertainment purposes; these writers craft an imaginative world that reflects not just the unique environment and community they live in, but also their perception of the stories and ideas that enthrall and fascinate them.

If my younger self was encouraged to creatively express a love for stories, then teens and young adults should be given that chance as well. Although much of the inspiration for fanfiction authors comes from other books and movies, it doesn’t mean that their work is unoriginal. Instead of painting a scene out of a book, these young writers use their words to paint a new experience of the stories we know and love. 

By the time I reached high school, I found it harder to continue reading books for pleasure outside of class. Personally, many of the activities and work that went with my readings felt cumbersome and uninteresting. Fanfiction gives many teens and young adults a reason to eagerly dive into books and stories outside of an academic setting. There’s no reason to hate on a creative literary activity that fosters a love for reading and storytelling.

At the end of the day, writers share their stories in order to bring a new idea or world to readers. Fanfiction is proof that young readers care deeply for the stories, ideas and real world experiences that they come across in their daily lives. Nevertheless, the chances of me sitting down today to read fanfiction are very slim. I’m probably not mentally or emotionally prepared to read about “Dramione” or some other fan rendition of the wizarding world. But I can confidently say that my prior annoyance with fanfiction was unnecessary.

Written by: Simran Kalkat — skkalkat@ucdavis.edu

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by individual columnists belong to the columnists alone and do not necessarily indicate the views and opinions held by The California Aggie.

NFL officials are falling behind in a league that is moving faster than ever

The National Football League and the NFL Referees Association came to a consensus on a new collective bargaining agreement that guarantees compensation and benefits to NFL officials for the next seven years, on Saturday, Sept. 28. It is an agreement we have to hope is much better than past agreements.

Currently, there are very few details of what the 18 months of negotiations have led to, but both sides have made public statements that indicate a win. “We see this new CBA as a partnership with the league that benefits our membership but also seeks to make our game better,” NFLRA President Tony Steratore said. “It is good to get these negotiations behind us.”

Despite all this promise surrounding the new deal, it is impossible to forget that for years the NFL treated one of the most crucial aspects of their product — officiating –– as a forgettable cog in their system. Officiating performance has gone stagnant as the game has moved forward at a rapid pace. 

Recent blowbacks on officiating — like the controversial non-call in the Rams v. Saints NFC Championship game in January — make this CBA the most important agreement. The game is getting faster and faster and the referees are stuck in the slow, archaic way of calling games. This could be a step in the right direction to bring referees into the modern era of the NFL. 

The most influential forces on any given Sunday are not the players or the coaches, but the officials and referees who enforce the rules of the game. Every close NFL game comes down to one or two plays, or one or two bad (or good) calls. Referees are people too. I know that might seem obvious, but they are often treated like the punching bags of the league by players, fans and coaches. It’s such a child-like treatment of rule enforcers. They are relentlessly screamed at by coaches on the sidelines and players on the field, and it isn’t their fault. The infrastructure set up to provide for them and sharpen their skills as officiators is shaky at best. Many officials believe the game might just be too fast for humans to make every correct call. In reference to two of the league’s most well-known referees, The Ringer’s Kevin Clark wrote, “Blandino thinks there are too many exceptions that overcomplicate the rule book. Pereira believes that officials need more practice repetitions.”

There are currently zero full-time referees and minimal training as the league institutes new, controversial rules year after year. NFL referees, and referees in general, are treated unfairly. Beyond treatment from just fans and players, their labor rights have been awful in nearly every CBA to this point. As it currently stands, 90% of NFL referees hold other full-time jobs. Pete Morelli was the president of a high school in Stockton, Gene Steratore owns a sanitary supply company and Walt Coleman is a dairy farmer. How can we possibly expect the NFL officials to live up to their responsibilities when they are splitting time between two lives?

If we take a look at the Rams vs. Saints NFC Championship game last year, the referees were the most talked about figures in the country following the game. The referees’ poor performance were the league’s worst nightmare — all because the officials were underprepared and underdeveloped. There are reasons why officiating has been perceived as so bad at the start of the last few seasons — the league keeps implementing new rules with which current referee crews simply cannot keep up. The new emphasis on calling offensive holding has caused holding calls in the first two weeks of the season to increase from 2.8 to 5.7 calls per game, putting officials in a tough spot when the greatest player of all time calls them out on Twitter. Implementing a new infrastructure to train and provide more support for officiating crews is the only way to correct this issue of overworked and mistreated referees.

The league implements countless new rules each year and just expects their under-benefited and understaffed officials to catch all the blame. The NFL needs better officiating, and the only way to do that is by treating officials what they are worth, based on the influence and value they bring to the league and game. 

Written by: Calvin Coffee — cscoffee@ucdavis.edu

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by individual columnists belong to the columnists alone and do not necessarily indicate the views and opinions held by The California Aggie.